MANZANAR WORKSHOP - Keeler - Jo Ann Formia - "Paint where you feel comfortable"

Monday I drew and painted in Keeler California.
According to Wikipedia:
"Keeler is a census-designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California, United States. Keeler is located on the east shore of Owens Lake 11.5 miles at an elevation of 3602 feet (1098 m). The population was 66 at the 2000 census. . . . When the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake rendered the pier in nearby Swansea inaccessible by uplifting the shoreline, a new pier was constructed to the south at a community named Hawley.
In 1880 a new mill was constructed at Hawley by the Owens Lake Mining and Milling Company for processing ore from the Cerro Gordo Mines in the mountains to the east. A town was laid out by the company agent Julius M. Keeler, for whom the town of Hawley was later renamed. . There was a 300-foot wharf at Keeler, and the steamship route cut days off the time for a freight wagon to circle the lake. .
The Carson and Colorado Railroad constructed a narrow gauge railway to Keeler in 1883. The success of the Cerro Gordo mines caused Keeler to boom until silver prices plummeted in the late 1800s. A second boom of zinc mining in the early 1900s brought new life to the town and a tramway was built to bring the ore from Cerro Gordo to Keeler.
Train service was stopped in 1960 and the tracks were removed in 1961. Water exports from the Owens Valley to the City of Los Angeles in the 1920s led the Owens Lake to eventually dry up, causing alkali dust storms to blow through Keeler, driving many residents away. Dust remediation efforts in the early 21st century reduced this problem, but few residents remain."

Jo Ann Formia did the demo at Keeler. She studied with Henry Fukuhara and Milfred Zornes. She is the president of Watercolor West. Jo Ann makes her own greens. She makes sketches and the paints outside where she feels comfortable not necessarily looking at the subject. She uses Bochenford paper. She uses a big brush and blocks in. She laughed that there is always an ugly stage in your painting. She uses American Journey paints from Cheap Joes. She says don't paint from you painting paint from your sketch. She often makes sketches of sketches to distill down to the most simple information and not getting caught up in the details.

MANZANAR WORKSHOP - Manzanar - It's much better to ruin a painting than do a safe painting - Chris Hero

On Sunday we painted at Manzanar
According to Wikipedia
"Manzanar is most widely known as the site of one of ten camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in California's Owens Valley between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, it is approximately 230 miles (370 km) northeast of Los Angeles Manzanar (which means “apple orchard” in Spanish) was identified by the United States National Park Service as the best-preserved of the former camp sites, and was designated the Manzanar National Historic Site."

Chris Hero did the demo Sunday at Manzanar.

Here are my notes: Thinking is done in the sketchbook. He paints against the traditional use of watercolor media. He likes to use a crayon as a resist. He says you know you are in trouble when you get out the little brush. He says he doesn't talk about colors that much he talks about warms and cools. White is a cool.

He says "it's much better to ruin a painting the do a safe painting." He says when you watch a demo for two things 1) What you never want to do or 2)things you would like to borrow. He says instant coffee and tea make great drawing inks. He works from memory a lot. He always knows he is going to take a painting back into the studio.

He says Manzanar is a prison camp not just any place is Owens Valley. This needs to come across in the painting. In the best artmaking technique and content are in balance somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot.

MANZANAR WORKSHOP - Alabama Hills - Al Setton: "As soon as you put away your big brush and get out your little brush you're in trouble."

Today we painted at the Alabama Hills.
According to Wikipedia: "Alabama Hills are a "range of hills" and rock formations near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the Owens Valley, west of Lone Pine in Inyo County, California. Though geographically considered a range of hills, geologically they are a part of the Sierra Nevada mountains."

The Demo Today was by David Deyell. "David paints in the "California Style"; entertaining, happy, bright, colorful paintings. Emphasis on composition, values, brush strokes, shapes and symbols, strong contrasting colors."

My Notes from the Demo:

He worked with McKim, Meade and white. Influenced by Tony Couch and Edward Whitney.He emphasizes making a value plan. You need to make a plan before you paint. He often said: DESIGN, CREATE and COMPOSE.

He likes Richardson Paper and Brushes. He starts his watercolors by sketching in Sharpie. With the Sharpie he stresses looking for thick and thin lines, continuous lines. You need to have a reason. Have a center of interest.

Try to paint the most difficult part first. Paint hardest to easiest. Be a composer not a copier. If are an artist destroy the brush and make it work for you. Don't treat it like you are a housepainter and are going to pass the brush on. Don't use the brush as if you were painting a barn. If you spend 3/4 of your time outside you will learn more. Turn painting upside down from time time. Henry would never have a blue sky.

The critique in the evening was by Al Seton. "Artist Al Setton's work captures California's joyful and energetic, yet sophisticated and laid back ambiance. Educated at Cairo University, the University of Santa Cruz, and the California Art Institute, Al Setton's paintings clearly reflect the influences of Fauvism and Abstract Expressionist masters in addition to the work of recent masters such as Henry Fukuhara, Rex Brandt, Robert E. Wood, and Kathryn Chang Liu. It is clear that Setton has developed his own personal vision of life which engages and excites the viewer. The artist's hand is evident in his work with visible, energetic brush strokes, unique markings, and spills and drips, which make the viewer aware of both the flatness of the surface and the quality of paint application while being entertained by deceivingly simple subject matter."

Here are my notes: Don't be limited by the nature that's out there. Interesting shapes have some interuption like sides of a jig saw puzzle Move things around in nature to make intersting shapes. Each corner should look different. Paint 80 to 90 percent on location and then put the painting away and see it with fresh eyes. Move color around through painting.

Do not follow local color. Create new colors by overlapping, create interest with calligraphic lines. Darks attract attention. Be careful about having to many clumps of grass. Make sure the painting is entertaining.

Know where you want the viewer to look. The eye looks at the lightest light against the darkest dark. You can use scrap paper with watercolors on it to check things out in the studio. You can create movement in your painting by having the perspective a little off.

As soon as you put away your big brush and get out your little brush you are in trouble. Don't leave the sky plain. Turn your painting upside down, sideways and squint at it.

MANZANAR WORKSHOP - Warm Up Day 2 - Spainhower Ranch

Friday we painted at Spainhower Ranch.

"Looking every bit the past of a rough wrangler and ranch hand, Lone Pine’s Russ Spainhower promoted the area as a great location for movies, many of which were shot on his ranch or using his horses for sets. "
Above or some Notan Paintings I did at Spainhower Ranch.

This is a horse named Lawrence

Here are some more Notan Paintings around the barn.

Two limited palette 6" x 8" Oil Paintings on Panel. I put the painting below up for Critique by Al Seton. He suggested that I break up the bands. He said try painting it a couple different ways make foreground warm and background cool in one of the variations. Put in some sort of escape hatch. Try not using local color in one of the variations.

MANZANAR WORKSHOP - Warm Up Day 1 - Dirty Socks and Diaz Lake

I attended the 5 day Henry Fukuhura Manzanar Workshop this year. I have wanted to go for many years.

"Henry Fukuhara, the Nisei watercolorist who painted vibrant landscapes of Manzanar and served as a teacher and mentor to a generation of artists. He passed away a few years ago at 96.
Fukuhara’s abstract landscape watercolors are represented in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Bernardino Museum of Art, and the Japanese American National Museum. He is listed in “Who’s Who in American Art” and is a member of the prestigious National Watercolor Society, as well as an honorary member of Watercolor West.
“I enjoy myself when I paint. I’m in another world, I forget everything,” Henry Fukuhara said at the 2005 Manzanar Paint Out, a watercolor workshop he led every year to the Owens Valley. “If you are a painter, you can move mountains, you can move trees.”

The first day of the trip we painted around OLANCHA According to wikipedia:

Olancha (formerly, Olanche) is a census-designated place in Inyo County of the U.S. state of California. Olancha is located on U.S. Route 395 in California, 37 miles (60 km) south-southeast of Independence, at an elevation of 3658 feet (1115 m). As of the 2000 census, the CDP population was 134.
Located in the Owens Valley next to the now mostly dry Owens Lake, the arid settlement is home to a major bottled water plant for Crystal Geyser Natural Alpine Spring Water

DIRTY SOCKS HOT SPRINGS (near Olancha)

"At one time a nice county park established for the enjoyment of hot springs devotees, this area is now more attractive to migrating birds - and birders. (If you don't mind a little slimy algae, the cemented pond might be enjoyable still for some.) The small natural pond will often host shorebirds and other waterfowl. Walk to the north and look for rails in the extensive reeds"

These are some Notan paintings I did around the site
These are (2) 6" x 8" that I did using limited palettes one with a cool red and one with a warm red although it's hard to tell the difference.

DIAZ LAKE

According to wikipedia:

The lake was formed by the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake on Tuesday, March 26 of that year when 18 mi (29 km) of the Owens Valley dropped approximately 20 feet (6 m) (see graben) and a new spring opened, causing water to fill the lowland.
The lake was named for the Diaz family who established a ranch here when brother Rafael and Eleuterio Diaz emigrated from Chile in the 1860s. They owned and operated a successful cattle ranch until the land was sold to the city of Los Angeles.

These are some small Notan Paintings I did at Diaz Lake.

This is a limited palette 6" x 8" painting I did using Phthalo Blue, Phthalo Green, Black and White as a Monochrome Palette. I want to do some more paintings with this palette.

Santa Fe

I'm on an Elderhostel went to two courses today one about a woman named connie that built her own adobe and one about the literature of the Southwest. In the afternoon we went down to Santa Fe and I drew a little.

Here are some things I heard about that today in fragments and my attempt to figure out who are what they were

"Michael" a poem by Wordsworth

William Wordsworth's "Michael" is a narrative, pastoral poem with 484 unrimed lines. The speaker's purpose is to praise the rural life, lived close to nature.
Adventure in the Unknown Interior of America

Rhetoric of Empire
The white man's burden, darkest Africa, the seduction of the primitive: such phrases were widespread in the language Western empires used to talk about their colonial enterprises. How this language itself served imperial purposes--and how it survives today in writing about the Third World--are the subject of David Spurr's book, a revealing account of the rhetorical strategies that have defined Western thinking about the non-Western world.Despite historical differences among British, French, and American versions of colonialism, their rhetoric had much in common. The Rhetoric of Empire identifies these shared features—images, figures of speech, and characteristic lines of argument—and explores them in a wide variety of sources. A former correspondent for the United Press International, the author is equally at home with journalism or critical theory, travel writing or official documents, and his discussion is remarkably comprehensive. Ranging from T. E. Lawrence and Isak Dineson to Hemingway and Naipaul, from Time and the New Yorker to the National Geographic and Le Monde, from journalists such as Didion and Sontag to colonial administrators such as Frederick Lugard and Albert Sarraut, this analysis suggests the degree to which certain rhetorical tactics penetrate the popular as well as official colonial and postcolonial discourse. Finally, Spurr considers the question: Can the language itself—and with it, Western forms of interpretation--be freed of the exercise of colonial power? This ambitious book is an answer of sorts. By exposing the rhetoric of empire, Spurr begins to loosen its hold over discourse about—and between—different cultures.

a potter named Maria Martinez
Maria Montoya Martinez (1881 in San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico – July 20, 1980 in San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico) was a Native American artist who created internationally known pottery. Martinez (born Maria Antonia Montoya), her husband Julian, and other family members examined traditional Pueblo pottery styles and techniques to create pieces which reflect the Pueblo people’s legacy of fine artwork and crafts.

Momaday
Navarre Scott Momaday (born February 27, 1934) is a Kiowa-Cherokee writer from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona.Momaday's novel House Made of Dawn led to the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969.

Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. At first an international trade route between the United States and Mexico, it was the 1846 U.S. invasion route of New Mexico during the Mexican–American War.
Treaty of Guadeloupe Hildago

Lew Wallace

Lewis "Lew" Wallace (April 10, 1827 – February 15, 1905) was a lawyer, governor, Union geral in the American Civil War, American statesman and author, best remembered for his historical novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

D.H. Lawrence in Taos

Harvey Girls
In 1883, unhappy with his customers' deplorable behavior toward his predominantly black service staff (who often carried firearms to protect themselves) and the business it cost him, Harvey implemented a policy of hiring only female waitresses. He sought out single, well-mannered, and educated ladies, and placed ads in newspapers throughout the east coast and midwest for "young women, 18 to 30 years of age, of good character, attractive and intelligent".

Sisters of Chairy

Chatauqua Movement

The Woman at Ottewi Crossing

History of Witchcraft in the Southwest

Turquoise Trail

Greystone Manor with Mary Beth

Went painting with Mary Beth 2 Fridays ago. Here are the results. We were at Greystone Manor again. It's a great place to paint.